


A life that's full

by Wherethereissmoak



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, olicity - Freeform, season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 02:24:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8779474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wherethereissmoak/pseuds/Wherethereissmoak
Summary: Oliver's POV when he flashes memories of Felicity in the 100th episode.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little bit of Oliver's POV of the 100th episode. This all just tumbled out of my brain late st night so take that for what it's worth. This is not beta'd so all the errors are my own.

What was the dream and what was real?

Oliver stared at The Green Arrow in confusion. Although, he didn’t think this man, John Diggle was the Green Arrow. There was a high probability that he himself was. He had these flashes in his mind of himself in the same suit the large man was wearing.

And of the man – John Diggle – he had several flashes of them together. In these flashes they were like brothers. But how was this possible when he had never laid eyes on the man before?

The blonde woman in glasses next to him was talking, and it shifted his focus to her. He had seen her ducked behind a fern when he entered this undercover base, and for some unexplained reason, a lot of his anxiety eased.  Even hearing her voice now, though she still was objecting to his presence, he felt like he was right where he needed to be.

She frowned at him, and like a punch in the gut flashes entered his mind. An office, a red pen. A red dress. A kiss. Skin on skin. Ring. Wedding. Oh, God, Felicity. How could he have forgotten her? Who was this woman to him?

“Felicity…” he whispered like a prayer.

Her eyes widened in recognition and he knew that the flashes had been correct – she was Felicity. But the real question is why was he having flashes about this girl when he was engaged to marry Laurel. What the hell was going on here?

“This isn’t right,” he told John, before the large man kicked him out of their Foundry.

The Green Arrow reminded Oliver that he had a perfect world and why was he messing with it. It didn’t feel perfect, but from the flashes he had seen of his parents and Laurel dying or dead, he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out if that world was real either.

His whole world was falling apart, and he had no idea why. So he panicked. He had to pick a world to live in, so he chose the easiest option. He rushed to Laurel’s side and begged her to elope with him. He loved Laurel. She didn’t give him the same sense of peace that Felicity had, but he loved her nonetheless. And he most certainly didn’t want her to die. If choosing this life meant she lived, his parents lived, then that would be what he had to do.

But the more he talked to Laurel, the more his sense of unease grew. He was relieved when John Diggle interrupted. The man had started having flashes too. They tried to remember what they had been doing before they woke up yesterday morning, and they couldn’t.

Soon they figured out that Sara, Ray and Thea were also not of this world too. Oliver’s memories came back one by one, and the more this happened, the more he realized that everything around him was fake. He went into the mansion to find Thea and saw Felicity, although it wasn’t his Felicity. It wasn’t even the one he had seen in the Foundry. She wore a dress that for some reason made extremely sick to his stomach. And she had a ring on her finger. He took one look at her and told himself that she was not his Felicity. She wasn’t real. He had to do what he needed to do to get back to the real Felicity. Who shined much brighter than anything in this world ever would.

He said goodbye to his parents, allowing himself to have that moment even if he knew they weren’t real. He said goodbye to his sister because she wanted to stay. That was one of the hardest things he had ever done. But one of his main goals in life was to secure happiness for his sister, and if she was happy here, then so be it.

They fought against several enemies on the front lawn of the Queen Mansion, something that was surreal in and of itself. Thea joined them, reminding Oliver that they were family and would be sticking together.

Once they defeated the villains, they went toward the Smoak building to find their way home. Despite his circumstances, Oliver let himself have a little chuckle over that. Even in his subconscious, Felicity Smoak was his home.

As he stood in the building, he turned and took one last look at the world he was leaving. They were all there, all his friends who had made a significant impact on him as Green Arrow – Tommy, Laurel, Roy, Mom, Dad…and her. She stood out, literally a step above the others as her image appeared on the stares.

“You honor the dead by fighting…and you are not done fighting,” her voice rang in his head.

As usual, she was right. He may not be able to stay in this world, but he could honor all those he left behind by making the world a better place.

He returned to the real world, and it was not as peaceful as the one he had left, but it was his. He and Barry agreed that in their alternative realities their lives would have been happy, but they would not have been full.

He was the Green Arrow, it was part of him.

He was the man who had friends and a mission.

He was the man who loved Felicity Smoak and wanted her happiness above all…even if it wasn’t with him.

But as he started to watch her, he realized that her life as she was living it was not full either. The jokes she told were to deflect the issues she didn’t want to deal with. Her smiles never quite reached her eyes. She never seemed at ease when around her boyfriend.

She was living in another world of her own construction, and she needed to embrace reality. And he was going to do what he needed to help her.

He looked down at the present in his hand, hoping it wasn’t going to far, hoping it would help her remember who she was and why she had joined the mission. He thought that it might ground her, and let her know that he was not giving up on her, or them.

It was a package of red pens…

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
